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Photos Provided by Orient Express Hotels
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In 1927, the opening of The Ritz-Carlton in Boston revolutionized
the hotel business. At the time, it was widely publicized as
the most luxurious hotel in America, with its most famous feature
being a private bath attached to each guest room.
Of course, there was more to the Ritz-Carlton than the technological
advancement of indoor plumbing. It, in fact, was the result
of a vision by famed hotelier Cesar Ritz. He designated amenities
that would later define the luxury hotel experience. His list,
along with private bathrooms and wait staff uniformed in white
tie, included explicit instructions for extensive fresh flowers
to be displayed throughout.
Today, these standards are at the core of the hotel star ratings.
The stars and recommendations granted by independent travel
organizations such as AAA, Mobil Travel Guide, Fodor's Travel
Guides and American Express, have enormous power over what hotels
can charge. As every addition, renovation and new property shuffles
the mix of ratings in a particular city, earning and holing
on to a star rating is important to the hotel's financial success.
I interviewed executives and reviews at several of the leading
travel rating agencies and asked them about the role of plants
in the hotel experience. Due to the seriousness off the ratings,
most people were uncomfortable commenting on specific properties
or brands.
Of those I spoke with, all considered plants and flowers in
a hotel's interior to be a factor in earning a star rating.
True to Ritz's service standards, live plants and fresh flowers
are one of the fundamental details still synonymous with luxury
today.
A Serious Business
"Live plants are an asset," says Louisa Sandes, Spokesperson
for Fodor's Travel Guides. She emphasized that plants enhance
the ambiance and are well liked by travelers, "providing that
they are well-kept and fragrances are not overwhelming."
Just like any other décor decision, the plants need to be right
for the space. Inspectors are sensitive to elements that are
out of scale or anything that looks spoiled. There are instances
where directional lighting might make a plant's age or natural
imperfections appear more noticeable.
In worst-case scenarios, "if the plants are in bad condition
at a three-star property, we wouldn't necessarily down-grade
[the hotel] to two-star, but we could choose to delete it from
our listing," says Shane O'Flaherty, Vice President of Quality
Assurance at Mobile Travel Guide.
O'Flaherty heads a team of 50 facility and five service inspectors
who decide how many Mobil stars a property should receive. He
says a hotel might choose to compensate for shortcomings in
other areas with plants. But, he says, "The properties are rated
for their overall facility and service quality, and not just
one category."
If a star has been lost or new competition arrives, hotels will
go through many lengths to compete. In one situation, a large
resort property lost a star for multiple reasons, and plants
were one item on their eight-point list. Dissatisfied with their
current interior landscape contractor, the general manager contacted
a vendor he hotel owner has successfully worked with in other
markets.
"Eight months later, they got their star back," says Pat Heroman,
President of Heroman Services Plant Company. Even though the
hotel is many miles away from Herioman's corporate and branch
offices, the hotel decided to retain the New Orleans-based interior
landscape company to ensure the quality would be maintained.
The hotel flies in and puts up one of its supervisors every
eight weeks, Heroman says. He calls that arrangement an unexpected
benefit, noting that the complimentary travel is a good reward
for his staff.
Consolidations in the specialized service sector have left some
in the hospitality industry with fewer vendor choices. As a
result, it is not uncommon for a hotel manager to request the
services of favored vendors that perform well for properties
in other markets to consult, fix a problem or perform work.
High-end properties want to do business with service companies
where the owner can personally guarantee quality. According
to one senior hotel executive who wishes to remain nameless,
"Our purchasing partner tried consolidating plant vendors along
with other services, and we decided to remove plants from their
responsibilities due to poor quality." He noted that their national
purchasing system is successful for other products and services
such as linens, but "perishables are of the best quality when
it is the responsibility if on-site managers to choose vendors."
Luxury Can't be Faked
In the luxury hotel segment "Mobile examines amenities that
we feel are important to the customer" O'Flaherty says. "When
paying $500 a night, the customers have an expectation that
the luxury items be real and have a fresh feel."
The notion of real is echoed throughout the luxury marketplace.
For some luxury brands such as The Ritz-Carlton, décor guidelines
discourage the use of artificial foliage.
"One of the key values or attributes of luxury is authenticity,"
says Pam Danziger, President of Unity Marketing, a firm specializing
in consulting on consumer habits for luxury goods. "The luxury
consumer values authenticity of their luxury experience. They
don't want faux or fake but real and authentic. The idea of
presenting faux plants in a luxury hotel setting is an oxymoron."
Danziger places plants with other hotel décor decisions. She
says plants "create the ambiance and feeling that communicates
luxury to the consumer from the moment they walk into the door
of the hotel. Even if plants are not paramount to the experience,
it says something when a hotel presents beautiful bouquets of
real flowers and authentic greenery. Anything less says Holiday
Inn, not Four Seasons."
Live plants and flowers are listed requirements by AAA to receive
a "five-diamond" rating. According to the rating criteria posted
on the AAA website, the hotel is to be decorated with "an outstanding
variety of live plants and fresh floral arrangements throughout."
Others echo this standard such as Mobil Travel Guides. To earn
four Mobil stars, the hotel must have live plants in guest rooms,
and five-star hotels are to have fresh flowers in guest rooms
and all public washrooms.
AAA does have provisions in its four-star rating for "unique
dried floral arrangements." Several reviewers also use the term
"dried" to describe preserved foliage, which is widely accepted
by the hotel industry due to its authenticity.
Some are not opposed to artificial, especially when it is mixed
with live. "Artificial is okay, as long as they are realistic
and not garish," says Sandes of Fodor's, but she reiterates
"real is always better."
Shane Pliska is an interior landscape design consultant and
business development manager at Planterra Corporation, West
Bloomfield, Michigan. He writes a monthly column for the trade
journal Interiorscape Magazine.
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